Winter time!Clocks in Europe are moved one whole hour backward.Ugh, going to be hard to get some sleep adjustment then.

So, recently there was this "Twitter thing" where the Blues answered some stuff most of us already knew for people who didn't know yet. It's twitter seriously. Most of them are half brain dead talking about poo. Either way, I spent most of my day farming ToC 5 man normal, and trolling newgrounds so there's not "that" much interesting to post this weekend.

Cataclysm

Q: Will Path of the Titans be as time consuming as obtaining Sons of Hodir reputation?A: Sons of Hodir was easy, we're thinking more along the lines of Argent Dawn rep actually. JK! As a matter of fact, we don't want the paths of the titans to feel grindy at all so we're trying to make sure that each step along the way feels more like a great quest, or a key achievement (like killing all the bosses in a new raid zone). So, it should be more oriented around accomplishing something that feels important rather than grinding.

Q: What’s Deathwing’s current relationship with the Old Gods?A: In facebook terms, I'd list it as "It's Complicated". "Single" or "Married" are probably too extreme in this case.

Q: Will there be Wintergrasp-like capturable zones in Cataclysm?A: Yes, there is an island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms named Tol Barad. Players will fight for control of the island and its famous prison. However, while the battle for Tol Barad is not in progress, players will find that it will remind them much more of the Isle of Quel'Danas, in that it'll be a major daily quest hub with quite a bit of random world pvp (presumably).

Q: Thousand Needles is getting a big change in levels; how has the Cataclysm affected it?A: As a result of the Cataclysm, Thousand Needles has been completely flooded with water!

Q: With Cataclysm revisiting the old world, any plan to make the old reputations worthwhile again?A: With each expansion, we introduce new reputations with new rewards. Sometimes we introduce reputations that are obviously related, such as Argent Dawn/Argent Crusade and Cenarion Circle/Cenarion Expedition. We don’t update the rewards for existing reps, as we don’t want to put new characters at such a significant disadvantage.

Q: With the removal of defense in Cataclysm, will plate gear still have avoidance stats or will tanks and dps be sharing?A: Tanking gear will still have avoidance stats, they just won't have the defense stat anymore. So to answer your question, tanking and dps gear will not be the same.

Q: Any plans of doing anything with Grim Batol in the Wetlands?A: Yes, we currently plan for Grim Batol to be one of the raid zones in Cataclysm. =]

Q: What are the plans for the current Goblin-run towns after Cataclysm is out?A: Most Goblin-run towns will continue to operate as normal. In general, the existing Goblin cartels tend to be self-serving, and therefore aren't taking sides.

Patch 3.3

Q: There's plenty of great endgame content, what about some new early/mid content to keep new players entertained?A: We actually have some small changes to the early game going live in 3.3.0 to help eliminate some new player confusion. This is not content specific, it is more focused around easing the new player pain.

Q: Will leveling from 80-85 be like leveling from 70-80?A: It's too early to say. We base our leveling more around how much quest content we have and how good the reward pacing feels. If we have as many quests as we did from 70-80 and if it feels like your character is getting a reasonable amount of new stuff for the time invested, then it could end up being similar.

Q: Will players be able to do 'old world' quests after Cataclysm is released?A: Only "old world" quests that we don't change. However, once the Cataclysm happens, it happens for everyone and there's no going back.

Q: How will you handle beginning characters and higher level friends after Cataclysm? WIll they be out of phase?Players will not be out of phase. The Cataclysm changes the world for everyone.

Q: Are Worgen going to have mounts?A: Both Worgen and Goblins will have new, racial specific mounts.

Q: Will there be events where ally + horde players have to work together to kill a boss?A: Generally speaking we don't do this because we prefer that the horde and alliance feel like enemies rather than a big happy family working together to defeat a common foe. If anything, we want tension between the sides to rise.

Q: Will Hyjal be made for exploration in Cataclysm?A: Yes.

Raids & Dungeons

Q: Love the steps taken to making high-end content accessible to casual players. How committed are you to continuing this?A: This is something we talk about on a regular basis. There isn’t a line in the sand we have made, it’s much more on a per piece of content basis. We do like the way the regular modes are shaping up to be more casual friendly, while the hardmodes are a way to reward very hardcore play.

Q: Ulduar had one kind of hard mode(triggered).. ToC had another (ToC vs TOGC).. Ony has none. What will ICC have?"A: ICC's hard modes will be triggered, but via in-game UI (much like how you toggle between normal and heroic modes today) rather than triggered by game mechanics (like not killing the three drakes before you attack Sartharion).

Q: For Cross-realm LFG if the group is composed by members of other realms do they have to go on foot or will they be teleported?A: The current plan is for players using the LFG system to be automatically teleported into the instance, similar to how battleground queuing works today. This is active on the PTR now, and we plan to host a community event around this feature soon!

Q: Any chance to have LFG menu to show classes you're looking for I.E just showing all tanks or healers currently qued in LFG.A: The plan right now is to allow players to register for roles they are capable of filling, then have the queue system make the best decision possible for the player. This is to give all classes an equal chance at participation. We also have plans to diversify the class makeup in a future PTR update.

Q: With T10, are we going to see tokens like in Ulduar? or like CC? CC style had every class and spec rolling on same thing.A: With t10 we're going to see a hybrid. The tier 10 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 10-player raid) will be purchased with Emblems of Frost.

The tier 10.5 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 25-player raid) will be obtained by getting a token (one that is specific to 3 or 4 classes, much like the ulduar tokens) and using it to upgrade the tier 10 item that was purchased with emblems of frost.

Q: Will there be anymore epic storylines with cinematics like the wrathgate questline?A: We have big plans for additional in game cinematics! We are happy with how the Wrathgate questline worked out, and want to do more lines like this.

Q: May I create a group with 4 friends and then use the LFG interface to gain the random dungeon reward?A: Yes. In fact, you can join it with a full group of 5 and still get the random dungeon reward. The reward is for doing a random dungeon, not necessarily for having random members.

Q: Crowd control is all but dead in raids. Is that something you plan on bringing back?A: Like say... with the Faction Champions encounter in ToC? ;]

Q: Are there any plans to open the other "sanctums" in Wyrmrest (i.e. Obsidian Sanctum, Azure Sanctum, Emerald Sanctum)?A: Possibly. =]

Q: Are hardmodes going to get anything to make them feel like a different fight visually or auditoryA: I find the hard modes very different visually. Much more black and white imo.

Q: Any chance that the hybrid system that is going to be implemented for T10, could be retro fitted to all WotLK raids?A: I'll take that as a good reaction to the t10 system. =] However, it unfortunately won't be retroactively applied.

Q: Will 10-man raiding guilds see Legendary quality weapons (items) drop in their raids anytime soon? Or in Cataclysm?A: Our current plan is to reserve Legendary weapons for the 25 person encounters, I wouldn’t rule it out in the future though.

Q: Any plans for a gated system in IIC like in Colliseum that prevents us from doing hardmodes from day 1?A: We do have a system that unlocks bosses similar to how we handled TOC and Sunwell. We are restricting hard modes to raid leaders that have defeated Arthas in regular mode.

Q: In the future will hard modes have greater fidelity like Sarth, Sarth+1, Sarth+2, Sarth+3 rather than the Binary Normal/Hard?A: Generally we have learned that hard modes should be more binary, but that doesn’t mean we will never do something like Sarth 3 drakes again.

Misc.

Q: When Race change is live will we be able to change to any race in our faction no matter what class we are?A: No, you can only Race Change to a race that allows your specific class.

Q: Any chance the Legendary items will grow stronger as players level up as heirlooms? Its too much work, just to ditch after a patch.A: This is something we have talked about a great deal. One of the concerns about making a weapon “best in the game” that scales up, is that players will continue to do old, outdated content in order to obtain the weapon. This ends up being not very fun for the other participants. While obtaining a legendary weapon is an incredible accomplishment, it is important cycle out weapons on a somewhat regular basis to make sure players are always playing new content.

Q: Any chance of being able to link more then one authenticator on one account? (in case I lose or break one)A: We are talking about the authenticator and how to make it a better experience. Your suggestion is one we are talking about.

Q: Do you have plans to have acheivement points redeemable?A: Achievement points are a prestige reward only. There are no plans to turn them into some kind of currency.

Q: Any plans on adding bonuses to certain titles your character obtains? Like "...of the alliance" gives +5 to all statsA: We have no plans to introduce combat advantages to titles. Titles in World of Warcraft are very specifically set up as prestige rewards only.

Q: Can locks have a summonable flying mount now pleaseA: Now? As in right this second? No.

Q: Will Alliance ever get an ingame band like the Hordes L80ETC?A: Sure, if somebody knows of an awesome Alliance band...

Q: When do hunters get to tame druids?A: Right after druids get a hunter form.

Q: What will happen to Mankrik's Wife? Please don't tell me she's gobbled up by the lava?A: You'll have to wait and see. =]

Last question!

Q: Who are the two developers answering these questions?A: Game Director Tom Chilton and Director of Production J. Allen Brack.

Back in the "old" days where it was still a desirable skill for melee classes it at least made some amount of sense to have to raise it manually. Having +5 or +10 extra weapon skill on top of the base 300 meant that you ended up with a LOT less glancing blows. As a rogue, that meant loads of white damage extra.

Weapon skill got changed. A few times even.Currently it's equivalent is called Expertise. But in 4.0 (The cataclysm) it'll get removed yet again.

However, we still have Weapon skill. No longer as a bonus stat, but still as a dated mechanic that we need to work through on every character when they gain a level. Be it mains or alts.

Warriors, rogues and hunters have it especially bad as they got nearly a full range of weapons to choose from. And luck would have it, you'll end up wielding each weapon every so and then as you upgrade them from greens, to blue, and epic. Or in the modern days of alts from Hierloom to dungeon blue, to raid epic.

At 1/400 weapon skill you'll miss, miss, miss, miss.Starting from 350 or so, you'll hit more, but only do 1% of the weapon's damage if you hit. And you can forget about getting crits. Those numbers steadily increase as your weapon skill increases, but... So does the time in between gaining skill points in that skill. If your class doesn't have any instant attacks - Such as rogues training bow or crossbow skill, well damn, you'll be taking HOURS for those last few skill points.

Luck would have it though, you've found this post!Personally I'd prefer weapon skill to be removed entirely, but for a lack of that option I'll give you a few weapons with a "fast" attack speed so you can hit mobs more often, and get skill points more often. Indeed, weapon speed increases the rate at which you gain skill.

So, let's see:

If you run into a nice epic / blue item that nobody during a dungeon run is interested in don't be afraid to roll greed for it. After all, it'll save you hours of time at any point in your character's development stage. On overall though, you should be able to find most weapons easily on a vendor. Simple white junk you can grab and re-sell again later. You also want as low dps as possible, since the monster you're trying to raise your skills on will then survive for longer, and thus give you more skill points.

The trick is to get your meat to turn crispy brown.If you are ending up with 'crunchy', then you should really pull it from the pan sooner.

Yeah, I've been in denial long enough.I guess it's time to come out in the open and just admit it straight out, I'm an altaholic like no doubt plenty others.

Not so bad as to have a dozen lvl 30-40 characters spread among different servers, but still. I just went ahead and started leveling my "bank alt" so she can reach level 20 and have a mount to move faster in Undercity. Seriously. It's a lot like how It went with the warlock when blizzard added enchanting levels needed for disenchanting.First he's 20, then 30, 40, and before you know it you've got another level 70 character on the list.

I'm sorted on professions, one of each of the basic professions, and multiple skinners and miners. Next up, one of each class. Just missing a warrior and a priest now. Already had the priest as bank alt for the private welfare guild bank, and now she's suddenly level 8. I suspect she'll hit 20 in due time, then roll on straight to 40 and probably more.

The warrior is alliance, to spy on them :PWhen cataclysm comes around, I guess she might turn into a worgen or goblin for the fun of it.

It's a real shame blizzard changed the way those hierloom items allow certain shoulder enchants. I still got +30 AP on a pair of plate and leather shoulders. But the cloth version simply refuses to accept the same Zul'Gurub enchant.

Still, +4 stats on the chest, and +30 spellpower on the staff makes for a happy alt.

Things not to do in the kitchen

You know how meat from the supermarket always has at least 30% extra water in it?Well, I had two. Put some butter in the pan, turn them around so and then, and repeat until done. Unlike regular "slightly more expensive" meat from a proper butcher, you then end up with a layer of boiling hot butter mixed with water in the pan.

Now, since I was also planning to bake some diced ham bits to mix with the potatoes I figured I'd get rid of all that grease and pour it into one of those white plastic / foam things that you normally buy the meat in. "Normally" when you pour said grease and water into one of those, it's been standing there in the kitchen for about thirty or more minutes. Cooling. This time however, it was still sizzling and hot as fuck. I figured, what the heck and held the white container above the sink and proceeded to pour the hot grease into it.

It fell "straight" through, as if it wasn't even there. o_OAt least that proves those things are definitely not heat resistant.

That was definitely one of those, "don't try this at home kids" moments.

PS: No pigs were hurt during the writing of this post, all meat was already dead when I bought it.

Battle.net

OK, blizzard has now officially announced you "Need" to merge your WoW account with your Battle.net account.

Make sure you do it before November 12th. Or you won't be able to play the game anymore. You even get a free penguin to boot.See MMOC for a shot of the penguin ;)

Blog

The RSS seems to be acting up strange, am I the only one noticing this, or, is anyone else getting this page to show up white randomly?

Linky

This one's bordering on porn, so don't click it if you're not at least 18 years or older. (And not at work obvioulsy) But hot dam it's is SO FUNNY! linky. Go check it out, awesome comic.

Emblems!Emblems and badges from 5 mans, 10 mans, 25 mans, there's no end to it nowadays.

Emblems of Conquest drop like candy from every heroic that previously dropped emblems of heroism / valor. Meaning you can now buy ilvl 226 loot from dungeons you were previously struggling through in ilvl 200 gear. If that doesn't mean anything to you, just skip to the last part of today's post :P

And now there's yet another Emblem added in 3.2 - Trial of the Crusader.These drop from the 10 man, and 25 man instance, on normal and on heroic mode. And you get 2 for doing the daily heroic as well as the new boss in Vault of Archavon.

Way back when Karazhan, Serpentshrine and Black Temple were still the mainstream you only got 1 type of badge. Obviously there was a general outcry when higher level loot was made available for those low level badges you were awarded in something as simple as 5 man heroics. We figured blizzard was doing a better job when 3.x came around and there were badges for 5-10 mans and another type of badge for 25 man instances. The former allowed you to buy slightly lower ilvl items than the one from 25 mans. But, rather than maintain what instances drop each type of bad, Blizzard is again catering to the casual and social aspect of the game. Rather than change the gear you can buy with said Tier-1 badges, they now make those low level bosses drop higher level badges. This means you can't stockpile as much as in TBC but the end result is still pretty much the same.

Free loot. And, being forced into the same 5 man dungeons you've been doing for nearly a year now to be able to keep up. Some will applaud this no doubt, others will not.

The main grievance in 3.2 however, is the complete and utterly generic loot distribution system now in place for gear tokens.

"Trophy of the Crusade" These drop from the new 25 man instance, and unlike the ulduar tokens can be used by any class at all. Less gear to disenchant you might think, and while that's certainly true you also need the aforementioned "Emblem of Triumph" in combination with these trophy tokens to be able to buy the 25 man instance armor pieces.

Luckily the Hard mode 25 man instance actually drops 3-4 class linked Regalia tokens which don't need anything else. But hard mode is in fact "hard". So all those wow players who've been spoon fed over the last year and a half with easy instances and optional hard mode bosses won't know what hit them. If you're after the hard mode 25 man gear, good luck and hopefully you're in a high end guild.

If you're in a mid level 10-25 man guild however, the easy / normal mode for the new instance is so damnably simple that you'll notice your average pug succeeding. Alts and casuals getting the achievement in guildchat. While at the same time you're sitting around being frustrated over the fact that you need yet another few dozen Emblems of Triumph to be able to buy the item you want. Technically you could be doing those 5 man instances that you're probably sick of by now, or do the 10 man version of the instance just to get badges. Badges, badges, badges, badges!

I just want random loot without being forced to grind badges elsewhere. Making the badges a requirement for main gear rather than trinkets, rings etc off the side was imo a poor choice by Blizzard. Onyxia is a fun reminder of old times but the class specific gear (much like in VoA) will undoubtedly set some teeth on edge.

So what do you do in a raid week?25 man ToC, 10 man ToC, Vault of Archavon.

And then, either 4-5 days of banging your head against the wall called "hard mode" and slowly watch the guild fall apart due to people who've been spoon fed with easy modes getting bored and leaving?Or, do you persuade your fellow raiders to go back into Ulduar - in which all the gear that could potentially drop is already outdated due to the new ToC instance - to farm the Legendary mace for your healers? Most people are bored of ulduar by now, and not getting any usual gear from there certainly doesn't help.

Patch 3.3 is available on the PTR and indeed Icecrown citadel, long awaited is available for running around in. Monsters and bosses don't give any loot yet but the items seen so far look very promising. It'll surely be a good change of pace over having every druid and rogue look the same, or every paladin, deathknight and warrior wearing the same gear with slightly different colors.

Iirc there will be 13 bosses inside ICC itself, with obviously arthas - aka the lich king himself at the end. Unlike the poor excuse of a dungeon that is the loot pinyata called ToC, ICC should prove to be a lot like Black Temple.

Robokill

I found this little gem on Armor Games: Robokill. It's a pretty well made top-down 2x shooter that should keep you going for a few hours. If you enjoy the short demo or already reached level 16, just google the "full version" on google or pay the meager 9.95$ for it. I'd recommend googling the full version though, as the game isn't very big and the max level is only 34.

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